More From Bliss, Warzycha

When I wrote this story for last Sunday’s paper, I had far more content than could fit in print. As a result, here is more of what Crew technical director Brian Bliss and head coach Robert Warzycha had to say about the 2012 club and what the coming months might bring.

Both Bliss and Warzycha felt the play of the midfield was solid. Bliss: “I’m not saying that those guys are going to change. Each one of those guys was able to make a contribution in one way or another, whether they were coming off the bench or they were starting. I’m not so sure that there’s a lot of improvement there or changes that are shaking up in that area of the field. It’s also pretty common, especially in the midfield area, that when you’re not necessarily lighting it up you’re going to shuffle some guys around. Hence, (Tony) Tchani starts some games and (Chris) Birchall starts some games and Danny (O’Rourke) starts some games and Cole (Grossman) gets a few starts and (Ethan) Finlay got a couple of starts because you can’t really figure out your combination of players, but I think the positive is those guys all got playing experience and contributed one way or another. I think there’s a core group of guys.”

Warzycha: “We always say that we have to win the middle of the field and midfielders are the engine of every team. Sometimes we gave up the middle of the field and the game didn’t look the way it should have. We were trying to find the best combination in the middle of the field.”

Josh Williams impressed everyone. Bliss: “Josh is a perfect example. He broke through. Look at a guy like (Graham) Zusi. It took him three years at Kansas City to break through and we’ve got a lot of guys in that two-plus-years group who are young. I’m not saying every one of them is going to break through and be Graham Zusi, but somebody could break through and be Josh Williams next year and it could be Ben Speas, it could be Aaron Horton, it could be Justin Meram, it could be Ethan Finlay. They put their time in. Next year’s core of guys that come in you hope are like Josh Williams in his first year that can chip away at it and in a couple years be that guy.”

The additions of Federico Higuain and Jairo Arrieta greatly changed the Crew’s dynamic. Warzycha: “Guys who maybe not surprised me but it was a pleasure to watch them play was Arrieta and Higuain, and Eddie Gaven got better when those guys came. Obviously Josh Williams is a little surprise and Andy Gruenebaum is not a surprise but it was nice to see him in the goal and he had a good season. When we started this season in January, who even thought these were going to be the ones who were going to shine? Those are five guys that started to shine when they got a chance. They took the chance with both hands. We need the other guys to follow them. We thought they were going to follow other guys. Other guys need to follow them.”

At least one “home-grown” player signing is likely. Bliss: “I think we’ve got some good guys in our system and I think if asked other guys around MLS what they think of our homegrown guys in college, I think you’d get some pretty good reviews. You know the names: Matt Wiet and Chad Barson and Wil Trapp and maybe Justin Luthy up at Boston College are top at mind. A lot of it comes down to how many resources we’ve got in that budget to accommodate as many guys as we can.”

Left back is near the top of the list of offseason concerns. Warzycha: “We have to solve that. Whether it’s (Nemanja Vukovic) or Josh or (Shaun Francis) before, from my point of view I wasn’t happy with that position. We have to upgrade that position. I don’t think that’s a natural position for Josh Williams. He showed that he can play over there, but it would be nice to have someone naturally left-footed at left back.”

The Crew’s late-season problems are viewed differently. Bliss: “Certainly that’s something that we’ve identified as well that down the stretch we’ve stumbled a bit, there’s no doubt. Is it easy to put your finger on it and say it’s these two players or is it the training methodology or is it the schedule that’s killed us? We don’t know, but we’ve already begun talking about what potentially could have been the pitfalls. There’s not any evidence leaning one way or the other to one area. I don’t want to chalk it up to dumb luck because there’s a trend there. If we look at a lot of things but we’re not 100 percent sure, we might change it for the sake of changing it in the hopes it will solve it.”

Warzycha: “If you look at the last 10 games, we are 5-4-1. If somebody says that we fade at the end of the season, I don’t think so. We still won all the games at home – we tied Kansas City. I think what hurt us the most was the injuries at the start of the season when we were 2-4-2. That was the time we had so many injuries it wasn’t even funny. That is what hurt us the most, the beginning of the season. We lost to Vancouver 1-0 at home on a fluke goal from the side of a free kick where we dominated. You can look at games, but if you look at the first eight games we lost some points there.”

Warzycha remains the guy. Bliss: “He’s done a good job here. Look at our overall record in his time here. He’s got a top-four in win percentage over the last four years. He’s got the best home record of any team in the last four years. We’ve won the reserve league both years with some younger guys. I don’t know what the beef is with the fans. I’m not going to speak for the Hunts, but in my 11 years of working with the Hunts I can’t imagine them being dissatisfied with the level of work.”